By Cat Wyatt

It’s not every day that a Green Lanterns cover has conversation on it, but that’s exactly what happened for issue #37. Right smack dab on the front we see Jess and Simon surrounded by small oods (thank you Doctor Who, for giving me a creature to reference here). Now in all likelihood they’re the Molites or another race we’ve seen recently, but they’re so stylized here I couldn’t say that for certain without opening up the issue and reading it (well done DC). The most striking part about the scene is Simon’s ring informing us (or more accurately, him) that “probability of death [is] 100%.” Yikes.

So you’re probably expecting something dramatic, after a cover like that, right? I know I was. So Imagine my surprise when I lifted up the cover to see Simon playing strip poker…with a (female) construct. Um. I’m not really sure how to feel about this? So I’m just going to move on. Thankfully the plot pretty much agrees with me here, as it picks up pretty quickly. While playing…poker…Simon gets a call from Liseth (the Ungaran girl he saved several issues ago). She’s terrified that the Red Tide is on its way to returning (the Red Tide being a war her people faced for many many years). So finally we see something happening about all that Molite/Ungaran buildup they’ve been dropping the last few issues (though I did realized belatedly that they didn’t do that in issue #36, should have known that’d mean it was coming full force in the next issue).

As we’ve seen before, there’s rioting in the streets. Unlike before, it appears to be worse. They’re not just outside the camps now, but also the Ungara Capitol House - apparently they blame the General (Liseth’s mother) for what has been happening (because she let the Molites come to their planet). I guess for a General that rules during wartime (mostly), it shouldn’t be surprising that her preferred way of sharing Intel is while simultaneously sparring with somebody. I guess she thinks best while moving/fighting?

The rundown of the situation (a lot of this we’ve gleaned from the hints appearing in the past few issues): Commodore Psyt was murdered, and the DNA found on his body/crime scene points to a Molite being the murderer (which I still don’t believe, they don’t strike me as the type). Even before this incident, the Molites didn't exactly fit in well with Ungaran society; they have a propensity for collecting metals (with or without permission) to create some sort of Ceremonial Armor. This has caused the nickname “Scarp Shirts” to be used (not going to lie, hearing that name made my skin crawl because you know what happens after horrible names are formed).

Naturally, the news of the murder leaked to the people (what a shock, right? It’s almost like somebody wanted it to be made public), which didn’t exactly help things. Then a group of youngsters snuck into the Molite camp, where they’re now supposedly being held hostage (though no demands have been made? Sounds suspicious). They’re having trouble keeping the Ungarans from flooding the camp, in part because the General refuses to allow an Ungaran to draw another Ungarans blood (which considering the war they just went through, I actually get).

That leaves the Ungaran leadership and by proxy, the Green Lanterns, with limited options. Clearly, they need to go in there and talk with the Molites, but they must do so without being spotted by the general populace (who knows how they’d react to that news, especially since they had a hand in bringing the Molites here).

I was happy to see that Simon and Jess held the same opinion about the murder that I did; that there’s no way a Molite did this. Well, they held that opinion until they got ambushed by a couple of dozen female Molites. I feel like the fact that the ring clarified that they were all females is probably relevant. This naturally had me wondering that perhaps the females are more aggressive, or that the change of territory has triggered something in them.

I missed the obvious conclusion, however, which thankfully Jess did not. They’re all running off of spiked (200% increase) Estrogen; they’re new mothers. A few dozen construct babies easily solve the problem, though it’s only a short-term solution (it’s not like Jess can stay there in perpetuity to keep these ladies calm). The only option is to figure out why these hormonal Molites are going crazy.

Unfortunately, a couple of tunnels down and the reason is made pretty clear. The cave is full of thousands (I’m guessing here) of crushed Molite eggs. So not only are these females hormonal, but they’re royally ticked off too (and frankly, who can blame them?). It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the missing teens must have done this (though I did momentarily wonder if perhaps Psyt had done it, and thus earned their rage).

The Podfather (I don’t know why, but that term keeps making me giggle) arrives in time to fully explain everything that occurred while Simon and Jess were gone. The teens snuck into the camp, crushed the eggs (which we guessed), and then in a desperate attempt to protect the kids from the Podmothers, Podfather moved them to his chambers. Apparently, even a pissed off Podmother won’t enter his rooms without permission.

How I’m interpreting this is, in response to their anger and destruction, he chose to save the children. But by taking them into his home, instead of releasing the kids (where the Podmothers would have probably tracked them down if I understand the situation correctly), he garnered more anger from the crowds outside. Which brings us to the murder of Psyt…Podfather claims he did it, but I don’t buy it. Not one bit. I believe he’s taking the fall for the sake of his people (after all, the second he claimed the blame the crowds outside were calmed down).

This revelation felt like it’d be the natural conclusion for this issue, but there’s actually a couple of pages left (much to my surprise). It’s mostly focused on Simon and Jess, and how they both interpret and process information and events differently. Though Simon gets, one heck of a bomb dropped on him in the end. I’m curious to see where that leads.

This was a pretty interesting issue on the whole. I’m so happy they finally did something with the Molite plot like they’ve been alluding to. I don’t like being teased about something like that, and then having the answer come much later (ok, I don’t hate it either, but I’m so darn nosy!). I do think they started building up to this plot earlier than they needed too…unless Singularity Jain somehow comes into play here (it was her plot that this first appeared in). I guess I’ll have to wait and see how everything ends up connecting.

I’m not super thrilled about the fact that the Molites on the cover look so drastically different from the Molites on the pages (though admittedly they look slightly less different when they’re rampaging females). Like many other Green Lantern issues, the artwork here cuts details when it can. Frequently the focus is on specific parts of a scene, and usually, all the detail is dedicated there. Which I’m usually fine with unless they drop details on the face. That’s just a pet peeve of mine.

Score: 4/5

Green Lanterns #37
DC Comics